Visible-Light-Promoted Iridium(III)-Catalyzed Acceptorless Dehydrogenation of N-Heterocycles at Room Temperature

An effective visible-light-promoted iridium(III)-catalyzed hydrogen production from N-heterocycles is described. A single iridium complex constitutes the photocatalytic system playing a dual task, harvesting visible-light and facilitating C–H cleavage and H₂ formation at room temperature and without additives. The presence of a chelating C–N ligand combining a mesoionic carbene ligand along with an amido functionality in the Ir^III complex is essential to attain the photocatalytic transformation. Furthermore, the Ir^III complex is also an efficient catalyst for the thermal reverse process under mild conditions, positioning itself as a proficient candidate for liquid organic hydrogen carrier technologies (LOHCs). Mechanistic studies support a light-induced formation of H₂ from the Ir–H intermediate as the operating mode of the iridium complex.

Carbohydrate‐functionalized triazolylidene iridium complexes: hydrogenation catalysis in water with asymmetric induction

Two sets of carbohydrate‐NHC hybrid iridium complexes were synthesised in order to combine properties of carbohydrates and triazolylidene (trz) ligands in organometallic catalysis. One set features a direct trz linkage to the anomeric carbohydrate carbon, while the second set is comprised of an ethyl linker between the two functional units. Deprotection of the carbohydrate afforded hybrid complexes that efficiently catalyse the direct hydrogenation of ketones in water. The catalytic activity of the hybrid complexes was influenced by the pH of the aqueous medium and surpassed the activity of carbohydrate‐free or acetyl‐protected analogues (>90 % vs 13 % yield). While no enantiomeric induction was observed for the ethyl‐linked hybrids, a moderate enantiomeric excess (ee) was induced by the directly linked systems. Moreover, these carbohydrate‐trz hybrid complexes displayed mixed inhibitory activity towards a glycosidase from H. orenii that contain a glucose binding site.

Systematic Influence of Electronic Modification of Ligands on the Catalytic Rate of Water Oxidation by a Single-Site Ru-Based Catalyst

Catalytic water oxidation is an important process for the development of clean energy solutions and energy storage. Despite the significant number of reports on active catalysts, systematic control of the catalytic activity remains elusive. In this study, descriptors are explored that can be correlated with catalytic activity. [Ru(tpy)(pic)₂ (H₂ O)](NO₃ )₂ and [Ru(EtO-tpy)(pic)₂ (H₂ O)](NO₃ )₂ (where tpy=2,2' : 6',2"-terpyridine, EtO-tpy=4'-(ethoxy)-2,2':6',2"-terpyridine, pic=4-picoline) are synthesized and characterized by NMR, UV/Vis, EPR, resonance Raman, and X-ray absorption spectroscopy, and electrochemical analysis. Addition of the ethoxy group increases the catalytic activity in chemically driven and photocatalytic water oxidation. Thus, the effect of the electron-donating group known for the [Ru(tpy)(bpy)(H₂ O)]²⁺ family is transferable to architectures with a tpy ligand trans to the Ru-oxo unit. Under catalytic conditions, [Ru(EtO-tpy)(pic)₂ (H₂ O)](NO₃ )₂ displays new spectroscopic signals tentatively assigned to a peroxo intermediate. Reaction pathways were analyzed by using DFT calculations. [Ru(EtO-tpy)(pic)₂ (H₂ O)](NO₃ )₂ is found to be one of the most active catalysts functioning by a water nucleophilic attack mechanism.

Chemistry of Compounds Based on 1,2,3-Triazolylidene-Type Mesoionic Carbenes

Mesoionic carbenes (MICs) of the 1,2,3-triazolylidene type have established themselves as a popular class of compounds over the past decade. Primary reasons for this popularity are their modular synthesis and their strong donor properties. While such MICs have mostly been used in combination with transition metals, the past few years have also seen their utility together with main group elements. In this paper, we present an overview of the recent developments on this class of compounds that include, among others, (i) cationic and anionic MIC ligands, (ii) the donor/acceptor properties of these ligands with a focus on the several methods that are known for estimating such donor/acceptor properties, (iii) a detailed overview of 3d metal complexes and main group compounds with these MIC ligands, (iv) results on the redox and photophysical properties of compounds based on MIC ligands, and (v) an overview on electrocatalysis, redox-switchable catalysis, and small-molecule activation to highlight the applications of compounds based on MIC ligands in contemporary chemistry. By discussing several aspects from the synthetic, spectroscopic, and application point of view of these classes of compounds, we highlight the state of the art of compounds containing MICs and present a perspective for future research in this field.

Molecular water oxidation catalysis by zwitterionic carboxylate bridge-functionalized bis-NHC iridium complexes

Carboxylate functionalized bis-NHC ligands allow for the stabilization of high-valent iridium intermediate species involved in homogeneous water oxidation catalysis.

Surface-Active Ionic Liquids in Catalytic Water Splitting

We report the application of surface-active ionic liquids as ligands and optional reaction media in iridium-catalyzed water oxidations. Three novel catalysts with N,N-dialkylimidazolidin-2-ylidene ligands based on amphiphilic imidazolium ionic liquids were synthesized and characterized. Excellent turn-over frequencies of up to 0.92s−1 were obtained in catalytic water splitting, and activity was maintained for five consecutive catalytic cycles, with an overall turn-over number of 8967. The addition of external surface-active ionic liquid showed unexpected behaviour, because strongly enhanced initial reaction rates were observed.

Photochemical oxidation of water catalysed by cyclometalated Ir(iii) complexes bearing Schiff-base ligands

Synthesis, characterization and photochemical oxidation of water catalysed by cyclometalated Ir(iii) complexes bearing Schiff-base ligands in the presence of Na₂S₂O₈ and [Ru(bpy)₃]²⁺ as a PS has been demonstrated.

Mesoionic and Related Less Heteroatom-Stabilized N-Heterocyclic Carbene Complexes: Synthesis, Catalysis, and Other Applications

Mesoionic carbenes are a subclass of the family of N-heterocyclic carbenes that generally feature less heteroatom stabilization of the carbenic carbon and hence impart specific donor properties and reactivity schemes when coordinated to a transition metal. Therefore, mesoionic carbenes and their complexes have attracted considerable attention both from a fundamental point of view as well as for application in catalysis and beyond. As a follow-up of an earlier Chemical Reviews overview from 2009, the organometallic chemistry of N-heterocyclic carbenes with reduced heteroatom stabilization is compiled for the 2008-2017 period, including specifically the chemistry of complexes containing 1,2,3-triazolylidenes, 4-imidazolylidenes, and related 5-membered N-heterocyclic carbenes with reduced heteratom stabilization such as (is)oxazolylidenes, pyrrazolylidenes, and thiazolylidenes, as well as pyridylidenes as 6-membered N-heterocyclic carbenes with reduced heteroatom stabilization. For each ligand subclass, metalation strategies, electronic and steric properties, and applications, in particular, in metal-mediated catalysis, are compiled. Mesoionic carbenes demonstrate particularly high activity in (water) oxidation, hydrogen transfer reactions, and cyclization reactions. Unique features of these ligands are identified such as their dipolar structure, their specific donor properties, as well as stability aspects of the ligand and the complexes, which provides opportunities for further research.

A leap forward in iridium-NHC catalysis: new horizons and mechanistic insights

This review summarises the most recent advances in Ir-NHC catalysis while revisiting all the classical reactions in which this type of catalyst has proved to be active. The influence of the ligand system and, in particular, the impact of the NHC ligand on the activity and selectivity of the reaction have been analysed, accompanied by an examination of the great variety of catalytic cycles hitherto reported. The reaction mechanisms so far proposed are described and commented on for each individual process. Moreover, some general considerations that attempt to explain the influence of the NHC from a mechanistic viewpoint are presented at the end of the review. The first sections are dedicated to the most widely explored reactions that use Ir-NHCs, i.e., hydrogenation and transfer hydrogenation, for which a general overview that tries to compile all the Ir-NHC catalysts hitherto reported for these processes is provided. The next sections deal with hydrogen borrowing, hydrosilylation, water splitting, dehydrogenation (of alcohols, alkanes, aminoboranes and formic acid), hydrogen isotope exchange (HIE), signal amplification by reversible exchange and C-H bond functionalisation (silylation and borylation). The last section compiles a series of reactions somewhat less explored for Ir-NHC catalysts that include the hydroalkynylation of imines, hydroamination, diboration of olefins, hydrolysis and methanolysis of silanes, arylation of aldehydes with boronic acids, addition of aroyl chlorides to alkynes, visible light driven reactions, isomerisation of alkenes, asymmetric intramolecular allylic amination and reactions that employ heterometallic catalysts containing at least one Ir-NHC unit.

Electrocatalytic oxygen evolution with a cobalt complex

The development of an earth-abundant, first-row water oxidation catalyst that operates at a high TOF and a low overpotential remains a fundamental chemical challenge. Cobalt complexes are important members of water oxidation catalysts. Herein, we report a cobalt-based robust homogeneous water oxidation catalyst, which can electrocatalyze water oxidation at a high pH and a low overpotential (η = 520 mV) in phosphate buffer. This homogeneous system exhibits a high turnover frequency (about 5 s^-1) of catalyzing water oxidation to produce oxygen at η = 720 mV. We speculate the mechanism of the reaction that O-O bond formation prefers a HO-OH coupling in catalytic water oxidation.

Homogeneous Water Oxidation by Half-Sandwich Iridium(III) N-Heterocyclic Carbene Complexes with Pendant Hydroxy and Amino Groups

Herein, we report three Ir^III Cp* complexes with hydroxy- or amino-functionalized N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) ligands that catalyze efficient water oxidation induced by addition of ceric ammonium nitrate (CAN). The pendant hydroxy or amino groups are very important for activity, and the complexes with heteroatom-functionalized NHC ligands show up to 15 times higher rates of oxygen evolution in CAN-induced water oxidation than a reference Ir^III Cp* complex without heteroatom functionalization. The formation of molecular high-valent Ir intermediates that are presumably involved in the rate-determining step for water oxidation is established by UV/Vis spectroscopy and ESI-MS under turnover conditions. The hydroxy groups on the NHC ligands, as well as chloride ligands on the iridium center are proposed to structurally stabilize the high-valent species, and thereby improve the catalytic activity. The Ir^III complex with a hydroxy-functionalized NHC shows the highest catalytic activity with a TON of 2500 obtained in 3 h and with >90 % yield relative to the amount of oxidant used.

Mononuclear ruthenium compounds bearing N-donor and N-heterocyclic carbene ligands: structure and oxidative catalysis

A new CNNC carbene-phthalazine tetradentate ligand has been synthesised, which in the reaction with [Ru(T)Cl₃] (T = trpy, tpm, bpea; trpy = 2,2';6',2''-terpyridine; tpm = tris(pyrazol-1-yl)methane; bpea = N,N-bis(pyridin-2-ylmethyl)ethanamine) in MeOH or iPrOH undergoes a C-N bond scission due to the nucleophilic attack of a solvent molecule, with the subsequent formation of the mononuclear complexes cis-[Ru(PhthaPz-OR)(trpy)X]ⁿ⁺, [Ru(PhthaPz-OMe)(tpm)X]ⁿ⁺ and trans,fac-[Ru(PhthaPz-OMe)(bpea)X]ⁿ⁺ (X = Cl, n = 1; X = H₂O, n = 2; PhthaPz-OR = 1-(4-alkoxyphthalazin-1-yl)-3-methyl-1H-imidazol-3-ium), named 1a⁺/2a²⁺ (R = Me), 1b⁺/2b²⁺ (R = iPr), 3⁺/4²⁺ and 5⁺/6²⁺, respectively. Interestingly, regulation of the stability regions of different Ru oxidation states is obtained by different ligand combinations, going from 6²⁺, where Ru(iii) is clearly stable and mono-electronic transfers are favoured, to 2a²⁺/2b²⁺, where Ru(iii) is almost unstable with regard to its disproportionation. The catalytic performance of the Ru-OH₂ complexes in chemical water oxidation at pH 1.0 points to poor stability (ligand oxidation), with subsequent evolution of CO₂ together with O₂, especially for 4²⁺ and 6²⁺. In electrochemically driven water oxidation, the highest TOF values are obtained for 2a²⁺ at pH 1.0. In alkene epoxidation, complexes favouring bi-electronic transfer processes show better performances and selectivities than those favouring mono-electronic transfers, while alkenes containing electron-donor groups show better performances than those bearing electron-withdrawing groups. Finally, when cis-β-methylstyrene is employed as the substrate, no cis/trans isomerization takes place, thus indicating the existence of a stereospecific process.

Palladium(ii)-Acetylacetonato Complexes with Mesoionic Carbenes: Synthesis, Structures and Their Application in the Suzuki-Miyaura Cross Coupling Reaction

A series of novel palladium(ii) acetylacetonato complexes bearing mesoionic carbenes (MICs) have been synthesized and characterized. The synthesis of the complexes of type (MIC)Pd(acac)I (MIC = 1-mesityl-3-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3-triazol-5-ylidene (1), 1,4-(2,4,6-methyl)-phenyl-3-methyl-1,2,3-triazol-5-ylidene (2), 1,4-(2,6-diisopropyl)-phenyl-3-methyl-1,2,3-triazol-5-ylidene (3); acac = acetylacetonato) via direct metalation starting from the corresponding triazolium iodides and palladium(ii) acetylacetonate is described herein. All complexes were characterized by ¹H- and ¹³C-NMR spectroscopy and high resolution mass spectrometry. Additionally, two of the complexes were characterized by single crystal X-ray crystallography confirming a square-planar coordination geometry of the palladium(ii) center. A delocalized bonding situation was observed within the triazolylidene rings as well as for the acac ligand respectively. Complex 2 was found to be an efficient pre-catalyst for the Suzuki-Miyaura cross coupling reaction between aryl-bromides or -chlorides with phenylboronic acid.

Iron Pentapyridyl Complexes as Molecular Water Oxidation Catalysts: Strong Influence of a Chloride Ligand and pH in Altering the Mechanism

The development of molecular water oxidation catalysts based on earth-abundant, non-noble metals is essential for artificial photosynthesis research. Iron, which is the most abundant transition metal in the earth's crust, is a prospective candidate for this purpose. Herein, we report two iron complexes based on the polypyridyl ligand Py5OH (Py5OH=pyridine-2,6-diylbis [di(pyridin-2-yl)methanol]) that can catalyse water oxidation to produce O2 in Ru(III) -induced (at pH 8, highest turnover number (TON)=26.5; turnover frequency (TOF)=2.2 s(-1) ), Ce(IV) -induced (at pH≈1.5 highest TON=16; TOF=0.75 s(-1) ) and photo-induced (at pH 8, highest TON=43.5; TOF=0.6 s(-1) ) reactions. A chloride ligand in one of the iron complexes is shown to affect the activity strongly, improve stability and, thereby, the performance at pH 8 but it inhibits oxygen evolution at pH≈1.5. The observations are consistent with a change in mechanism for catalytic water oxidation with the Fe(Py5OH) complexes between acidic (Ce(IV) ) and near-neutral pH (Ru(III) ).

Molecular ruthenium water oxidation catalysts carrying non-innocent ligands: mechanistic insight through structure–activity relationships and quantum chemical calculations

Herein is highlighted how structure–activity relationships can be used to provide mechanistic insight into H₂O oxidation catalysis.

Cyano-decorated ligands: a powerful alternative to fluorination for tuning the photochemical properties of cyclometalated Ir(iii) complexes

Two bis-cyclometalated Ir(iii) photocatalysts were synthesized with nitrile moieties which imparted remarkable photophysical properties over conventional fluorinated ligands.

Versatile bonding and coordination modes of ditriazolylidene ligands in rhodium(iii) and iridium(iii) complexes

Metalation of novel ditriazolium salts containing a trimethylene (–CH₂CH₂CH₂–) or dimethylether linker (–CH₂OCH₂–) was probed with different rhodium(iii) and iridium(iii) precursors.

Iridium(III) Bis-Pyridine-2-Sulfonamide Complexes as Efficient and Durable Catalysts for Homogeneous Water Oxidation

A family of tetradentate bis(pyridine-2-sulfonamide) (bpsa) compounds was synthesized as a ligand platform for designing resilient and electronically tunable catalysts capable of performing water oxidation catalysis and other processes in highly oxidizing environments. These wrap-around ligands were coordinated to Ir(III) octahedrally, forming an anionic complex with chloride ions bound to the two remaining coordination sites. NMR spectroscopy documented that the more rigid ligand frameworks-[Ir(bpsa-Cy)Cl2](-) and [Ir(bpsa-Ph)Cl2](-)-produced C1-symmetric complexes, while the complex with the more flexible ethylene linker in [Ir(bpsa-en)Cl2](-) displays C2 symmetry. Their electronic structure was explored with DFT calculations and cyclic voltammetry in nonaqueous environments, which unveiled highly reversible Ir(III)/Ir(IV) redox processes and more complex, irreversible reduction chemistry. Addition of water to the electrolyte revealed the ability of these complexes to catalyze the water oxidation reaction efficiently. Electrochemical quartz crystal microbalance studies confirmed that a molecular species is responsible for the observed electrocatalytic behavior and ruled out the formation of active IrOx. The electrochemical studies were complemented by work on chemically driven water oxidation, where the catalytic activity of the iridium complexes was studied upon exposure to ceric ammonium nitrate, a strong, one-electron oxidant. Variation of the catalyst concentrations helped to illuminate the kinetics of these water oxidation processes and highlighted the robustness of these systems. Stable performance for over 10 days with thousands of catalyst turnovers was observed with the C1-symmetric catalysts. Dynamic light scattering experiments ascertained that a molecular species is responsible for the catalytic activity and excluded the formation of IrOx particles.

Dinuclear manganese complexes for water oxidation: evaluation of electronic effects and catalytic activity

During recent years significant progress has been made towards the realization of a sustainable and carbon-neutral energy economy. One promising approach is photochemical splitting of H2O into O2 and solar fuels, such as H2. However, the bottleneck in such artificial photosynthetic schemes is the H2O oxidation half reaction where more efficient catalysts are required that lower the kinetic barrier for this process. In particular catalysts based on earth-abundant metals are highly attractive compared to catalysts comprised of noble metals. We have now synthesized a library of dinuclear Mn2(II,III) catalysts for H2O oxidation and studied how the incorporation of different substituents affected the electronics and catalytic efficiency. It was found that the incorporation of a distal carboxyl group into the ligand scaffold resulted in a catalyst with increased catalytic activity, most likely because of the fact that the distal group is able to promote proton-coupled electron transfer (PCET) from the high-valent Mn species, thus facilitating O-O bond formation.

Iridium-based complexes for water oxidation

Activation of organometallic Ir precatalysts can yield either homogeneous or heterogeneous water-oxidation catalysts with very high activity.